Abington tops PV for fifth place

No team wants to find itself in a District 1 playback bracket.

While there is a use for the series of games bridging a team being knocked out of the district title hunt and the start of the PIAA tournament, players aren’t usually thinking about potential matchups or paths through the state bracket. That leads to games that don’t always have the most energy or enthusiasm about them, which is just how Abington started its last leg of the playback chain.

It wasn’t pretty, but Abington found enough energy to top visiting Perk Valley 54-45 on Friday to wrap up the fifth seed out of District 1.

“We just didn’t have enough energy tonight,” Abington coach Dan Marsh said. “We’re a very flawed team when we don’t play the way we want to play and that’s what we did. When we don’t have enough energy, that’s when people get open and if everyone’s not doing their job, our scramble defense doesn’t work.”

After his team lost to Pennsbury in the district quarterfinals, Marsh tried to tell the players there was value in winning out in playbacks and getting the fifth seed from District 1. The Ghosts were able to grind out a win over Haverford in their first playback game but just didn’t have the energy to start on Friday, falling behind 6-0 to the Vikings.

A timeout by Marsh led to a 7-0 Abington run, but it was a backand-forth first half that PV led most of until the hosts went on a 9-2 spree to close out for a 24-22 halftime edge. The Ghosts’ defense was giving up too much and only three players had scored at the break, which meant it was either time to pick up the energy or drop a game going into states.

“We weren’t into the game as much as we should have been,” Ghosts forward Jaida Helm said. “I think we may have taken them lightly but in the second half we came out with energy like we should have. We came in kind of lazy and needed to pick it up.”

The state tournament is new territory for both teams. While Abington is used to playing late into the season, aside from injured senior Khalis Whiting, none of the current Ghosts have played a state game.

On the other side, it’s a brand new experience for all the Vikings. Even though they lost Friday, senior Emma Miley noted it was good learning experience for her freshman-heavy team to play a team with such an aggressive and physical defense as Abington’s before heading into the PIAA playoffs.

“We haven’t seen a lot of teams that press as much as they do and especially with how quick they are, we tend to get a little frazzled when